Al Dawa Party Will Act As Intermediary

The Shiite al-Da`wa Party announced that it would attempt to negotiate a truce between radical young Shiite preacher Muqtada al-Sadr and the Americans. (al-Zaman). Muqtada recently announced that he would call fo a general strike in February to protest the jailing of a number of his followers. He has also, however, reaffirmed that he does not wish to take on the US with violence. One al-Da`wa leader, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, serves on the Intering Governing Council.